“HAHAHAHA! WOOOOOOO! This is fucking awesome!” I shouted, letting one hand go from Sahara’s saddle to feel the air rush through my fingers.
Winnie poked his head out of my hoodie. He took a single look at the drop below us at the tiny line below us that was route 202 and gulped, increasing his death grip on the back of my shirt, “do we have to be this high up az?”
“Yes!” “Garchomp!” Sahara and I shouted in unison. Winnie sighed and went back into my hoodie, “tell me when we get there.”
Flygon and Kenta, glided over to us. Kenta grinned at us, patting Flygon’s neck. The dragonfly gave Sahara a challenging roar before flapping its wings so fast that it created afterimages of its wings and then speeding ahead of us.
The wind thrashed through my hair from the burst of air produced from Flygon’s wings, I had flying goggles on, but I still shielded my face from the abruptly harsh winds. Sahara growled and her body tensed.
“You’re not gonna let them leave us in the dust are you!” I shouted over the roaring wind.
“Garchomp!” Sahara roared, and I tighten my grip on the saddle handle. “Dragon Rush!”
A swirl of blue and purple energy encased us, temporarily muffling the sounds of everything else as Sahara leaped forward, catching up to Flygon in an instant.
The looming buildings of Jubilife City were beginning to come into view, seeing that our race was coming to an end, the two dragons dived strained themselves even more to beat the other.
I leaned forward, feeling the thrill, it was like one of those steep roller coaster drops, but ten times better.
Our destination came into view, a Pokemon center on the outskirts of Jubilife with a landing area that had a big target painted on it that was zooming closer, Flygon and Sahara were neck in neck.
“Yooo hooo~ Last one there is a rotten egg!” We all glanced up as Dragonite sped past us with ease, Justine gave us a sly wave from Dragonite’s back.
The golden-yellow dragon skillfully dived down with a fancy spin and righted itself, slowing down at the last moment and and landing with a soft thump.
Unwilling to be last, Sahara didn’t slow down at all and landed just before Flygon did with a loud crash, skidding for twenty or so feet before we came a full stop.
Coughing from the dust cloud Sahara kicked up, I hopped off, trying to wave the dust away from my face. A strong gust of wind from Dragonite blew the dust cloud away.
I took off my riding gear and rubbed my hands together, they were slightly numb from the cold winds.
Winnie popped out of my hoodie and sneezed, giving Sahara a look, “do you have to make everything a competition?”
“Garchomp.” Sahara replied matter of factly.
I pumped a fist in the air, “That was awesome!”
“It is. I can see why people become flying type specialists.” Justine said, patting Dragonite’s snout.
Hearing that, Kenta rolled his eyes, “Hmph! Flying with a dragon is ten times better than flying with some bird! Most of the birds aren’t even big enough to ride on.”
“What about Altaria? It’s both a dragon and a bird.” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Kenta dismissively waved a hand at me, “It’s fine, but I prefer Dragonite and Salamence. My Uncle has both of them, he–.”
“Yeah, yeah we came here to shop, not hear about your uncle, you can talk about him another time.” Justine interrupted, taking out her phone and pulling up Pokemaps..
Kenta huffed but didn’t argue any further as we unequipped from saddles and returned our dragons.
----------------------------------------
A week before we were due to leave for Snowpoint City, I learned that Marcus was going to be going to Jubilife city to get some really important item.
Marcus had been working with the Devon Corporation and Silph Co to develop a better version of the energy reading machine.
The machine was ready to be picked up from the Jubilife Devon HQ a week before the team was due to leave.
The twins would be accompanying Marcus there, they’d be teleporting him there, actually.
Part of the reason Chloe and Zoe had been hired months before the expedition’s starting date was to teleport the scientists around so that they wouldn’t be harassed by people from Galactic Corporations on the way there and back. There was supposed to be one more researcher besides Tim, Marcus, and Celia, but number four dropped out because their family was being threatened.
I knew Team Galactic was willing to do messed up stuff, but threatening someone’s family really wasn’t chill. They all needed to take a chill pill.
Since they were going to Jubilife City, I decided that it would be great to go too just for funsies. Who wouldn’t want to check out Sinnoh’s biggest city?
I wouldn’t have the caveat of getting to teleport over there cause the three were leaving super early in the morning, but I didn’t need teleportation for travel.
Kenta and Justine decided to tagged along with me after I told them about my plan.
Justine just wanted to do some window shopping, while Kenta needed to restock on some dragon care stuff and was on the lookout for some unspecified battle items.
“So, where are we going?” I asked as we walked to the street in front of the Pokemon center.
“The shopping district. Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to show you all the cool stuff there!” Justine chattered, pulling out her phone to take a selfie of us, “Cheese!” The camera flashed.
“Yeah, there are a few stores I want to check out.” Said Kenta as he looked at his phone’s map, walkin to the front of the party to lead us. “There are a few battle items I’ve been looking for. Hopefully they’ll be in stock.”
Winnie, who had disguised himself as a Unovan Zorua, gawked at all the stuff around us, “wow! this place to so big! there are so many humans here!”
I nodded in agreement.
Jubilife was pretty different to the cities I was used to. Granted, I’d never gone to many cities, nor lived in them so I didn’t have much to compare it to besides places like New York, Boston, or Los Angeles.
Like an ants nest, Jubilife was bustling with activity. There were massive crowds we had to weave through consisting of both humans and Pokemon from all of the regions, not just Sinnoh. I was actually a bit concerned about being pickpocketed, especially after seeing a Purrloin eyeing us from an alleyway.
I’d never really considered what the Pokemon world would look like outside of battling and contests, and despite being important and literally having holidays built around them, the Pokemon world certainly didn’t revolve around them.
It was both amazing and a bit of a culture shock to see how Pokemon were integrated with human society.
All police officers I saw had some sort of Pokemon partner, with Growlithe and Herdier being the most popular choice among them, but I also saw a few Mightyena and Bolthund working as police dogs.
Areas that with extremely large crowds crossing busy intersections had a few Watchogs acting as crossing guards, as did areas where a lot of schoolchildren would cross the street.
The Pidove here were as plentiful as the fish in the sea, and there were a few Pidgey, Starly, and even a Chatot sprinkled into the flock.
While we were waiting for a Watchog to let us cross an intersection, I saw a bunch of little kids and a Yamper accompanying them run into the flock of Pidgey, laughing together as the small bird Pokemon frantically flapped and hopped away from them, cooing in irritation at the little rascals.
I was glad that I kept Kaiju in his Pokeball, those Pidove were basically moving chicken nuggets, he would’ve eaten a bunch of Pidove by now and unintentionally traumatized those kids.
Once we had crossed the intersection, the loud clatter of construction and people shouting caught my attention. There were people and Pokemon in high visibility vests and helmets working together to build a massive skyscraper. There were basically no construction vehicles cause Pokemon mostly filled the role of construction vehicles here.
Fighting types like Conkledurr and Machamp lifted giant beams like they were nothing. A bunch of Braviary, Skarmory, and Bombirdier worked together to carry materials to the top, and a group of Bronzong, Reuniclus, and Swoobat combined their psychic powers to lift things into place and hold them for a few fire or fighting types to weld or hammer into place.
We passed by a dojo near a trainer school with a Himonchan teaching some kids and younger fighting types about boxing. As we walked through an area with a bunch of restaurants, I saw through the window of a shop with a Tatsugiri sign on it, a Scyther in a chefs hat working with a human to make some really good looking sushi.
As we got closer to the shopping district, the streets got smaller and became pedestrian only.
Though we’d still see the occasional carriage being pulled by a pair of massive Mudsdale, or a smaller taxi pulled by a Gogoat. The streets were still crowded, but it was quieter due to the lack of vehicles.
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The buildings turned from massive structure for large businesses and corporations to smaller stores with the owner’s living quarters right above the main shop.
“what are they doing with the flowers?” Winnie asked, pointing to the pretty flowers from a florist business with a Roselia and a Whimsicott out front helping customers pick flowers. “They’re selling flowers.” I answered.
“Why? Can’t they just pick them from the forest?”
“It’s to use as gifts. They buy is from the florist because it’s more convenient, and cause they’ll have a bigger selection of flowers and the florist has the skills to arrange them to be pretty and compliment each other.”
A sweet, mouthwatering scent turned our heads to a crowded bakery. I could see an Alcremie and a Dachsbun standing out front and ushering customers in as they covertly renewed Sweet Scent every once in a while.
Now I was even more glad that I had kept Kaiju in his Dusk Ball, even though he’d gotten better with his self control, there was no way he wouldn’t been able to resist the allure of Sweet Scent.
Winnie kept tugging on my hair and begging to go get some sweets, I replied that it wasn’t time to eat, and that we could get some sweets on the way back so that he and the others could have some for desert after dinner. Winnie was disappointed, but still excited for the prospect of getting to eat something that smelled that good.
Hearing our conversation, Kenta told us that there was a better sweets shop somewhere else. We’d be meeting up with Chloe and Zoe at a nice bakery later, the cake from that one tasted better and wasn’t as expensive.
After passing a few more shops, Justine grabbed me and Kenta, squealing in excitement as she dragged us over to a somewhat fancy looking jewelry store to look at what they had. “OMG, guys! Look at this! It’ve been here before, it’s got some great stuff! Look at its evolution stones!”
The inside of the store was the same as any other jewelry store, but there was a section for evolution stones and a few battle items like those one use elemental gems.
A Carbink that was managing the store showed Justine the stones in the evolution stone case, and we left after she bought a dusk stone and a pair of Litwick earrings.
There were a few different battle item shops that we stopped by, but Kenta didn’t find what he was looking for. He never specified the item he wanted and settled on a set of elemental gems.
I asked what he was looking for to try to help find them and he just said it was an item specifically for a Salamence. It’s pretty rare so he didn't’ expect to find it here anyways.
The only Salamence specific item I could think of off the top of my head was the Salamencite. Man was looking for a mega stone for…his uncle? Cause I was pretty sure Kenta didn’t have a Salamence.
That reminds me, I have a shit ton of battle items in my bag that I should probably equip my team with.
As we continued through the bustling shopping district, my eyes landed on a Pokemon shop with a cute Eevee and pawprint logo. Underneath the sign, there were a bunch of young Pokemon being displayed in the window.
Most of the Pokemon being displayed were ones that were popular as pets and companions, ranging from Pikaclones, to Eevees, and a variety of small dog and cat Pokemon like Rockruff, Lillipup, Skitty, Glameow, and Kantonian Meowth.
They were so cute, even Kenta’s usually serious demeanor broke into a smile as an Eevee adorably pawed the window and looked at him with Baby-Doll Eyes. Justine and I awwed at that, I really wanted to pet all of those fluffy bois and hug them to death! But I couldn’t, so I just gave Winnie his favorite head scratches to alleviate the cuteness aggression.
“heh! i’m better than those brats in the window, aren’t i?” Winnie said, puffing up his neck fur in importance.
“Mmhmm, yes you are Winnie.” I said, much to the displeasure of the Eevee in the window who had used Baby-Doll Eyes. It haughtily sniffed and turned its back to us, flicking its tail at us in what I guess was a rude gesture. Winnie blew a raspberry at it and I told him to cut it out as I stepped away from the window.
None of the other stores really caught my interest, and we just browsed around before one thing caught my eye from the window of yet another battle item shop that we were in.
It was a sign with a derpy Porygon on it called: Sid’s Electronics Shop. I told Justine and Kenta I’d be checking that store out while they looked around the Voodoo shop and quickly went over.
The boring looking clerk at the counter looked up from watching a Pokemon battle and gave me said “Hi” as I stepped in before going back to his match, I said hi back and looked around.
The store was selling a variety of different computer parts and laptops, as well as stuff like C-Gears, Poketch’s, Pokegear, Pokenavs, and Xtransceivers. It was a Pokemon tech nerd’s dream come true. No Pokedexs though cause those were only given to trainers by the regional labs.
Since Kaiju had chewed on Rotom’s power bank and phone charger a week ago and broke it, I had been looking for one with better quality. I ended up settling on a Devon tech power bank cause Rotom liked that one the most.
As I was checking out, I saw a bunch of screens displaying Porygon and Porygon2 behind the counter caught my eye.
“Does this place sell Porygons?” I asked the clerk.
“Yeah, you wanna take a look?” He answered.
“No it’s fine, I’d like to buy a Porygon please, and can you add in a blue Xtransceiver?”
The clerk raised shrugged, “Okay, that’ll make your four thousand and five hundred dollars, plus another two hundred if you want to add the anti-catch software on Porygon.”
I wasn’t strapped for cash but I inwardly cringed at the amount of money I was spending. It’ll be worth it, you’re getting a Sp attack monster that has no upkeep cost, it’ll be worth it.
I nodded, prompting the clerk to add the extra software in and swiped my trainer ID on the card reader machine and it beeped, the cash register whirred and printed out a receipt.
The clerk did some stuff on the shop’s computer, registering one of the stored Porygon to my trainer ID. In a swirl of zeroes and ones, that Porygon materialized from out of the screen it was being displayed on and floated over to me once it had fully formed.
It was pretty wacky looking. A pastel red and blue geometric duck with wide, blank eyes. It let out a monotone and robotic, “Porygon.”
I thanked the clerk and excited the shop with excitement, speedwalking my way over to the training field of the nearest Pokemon Center and texting Justine and Kenta to meet me there once they were done shopping.
Porygon was not a common battling Pokemon, mostly being used in the tech industry for cybersecurity or just doing programming stuff.
So why a Porygon?
Well, besides not require any upkeep, they didn’t need to be caught in a Pokeball.
It was a living robot Pokemon that could be programmed with the same stuff that prevented Pokeballs from catching Pokemon that were already owned by another trainer. That function would cost a bit more, but it was worth it. The Xtransceiver I bought would be it’s ‘Pokeball’ of sorts.
Not to mention its signature abilities and moves, its monster special attack Stat, and the fact that I had the evolution items for it. Most Pokemon who evolved via items needed to wait until a certain age in order to safely evolve, Porygon was not included in that group.
Even if Porygon ended up not being a battle Pokemon, it would still be pretty good personal protection and support due to it having access to moves like Gravity, Trick Room, and Magic Coat.
I pulled out the Upgrade from my bag, presenting it to Porygon. Finally some of the stuff I collected is getting useful.
Porygon robotically took the Upgrade in its beak and paused, “Downloading Data.” Then it began to glow white, its form molding into a smoother rubber duckie shape before the white light dispersed to reveal Porygon2.
Rotom took this chance to scan the new Pokemon, “Porygon2, the virtual Pokemon. For the purposes of planetary development, Porygon was updated with the most cutting-edge technology available. The man-made Pokémon has been endowed with artificial intelligence that enables it to learn new gestures and emotions on its own.”
Porygon2 let out a loud high pitched flatline beep and a spin around, before it stopped in place, waiting for any more orders.
I felt Winnie flinch as he popped his head out of my hoodie and yawned, “what’s that noise?” He demanded, flicking his ears with irritation.
I reached back over and pat his head reassuringly, “It’s a Porygon2, the newest addition to the team. I’m just fine tuning it.”
I pulled out the Dubious disc and presented it to Porygon2. The giant rubber duckie took the item with no hesitation and paused.
“Downloading Data. Processing. Processing. ProcessSSSsssssssssiNgGg….” Its voice wavered and the Pokemon’s entire form began glitching before it glowed an even brighter white than before and shifted, settling into a new form.
“Porygon! ZeeeeeeeEEEEeeeeEEe….” Porygon-Z said, its voice glitching into high and low pitched tones as it squealed like a demented R2D2.
“geez louis quiet down!” Winnie shouted, putting a paw over one of his ears.
Porygon-Z ignored him and kept uncannily staring at me and twitching.
“Bzzt!” Rotom buzzed, “Error. Unidentified Pokemon or unsuccessful scan. Please try again.”
I tilted my head in confusion, “Error?”
I grabbed Rotom and took a closer look at the Pokedex. No Porygon-Z. Then I searched it up on the Pokenet where there were a few articles about the Pokemon from almost a decade ago.
The first article’s headline read:
Glitched Porygon2 Gone Berserk! 9 Dead!
Another one read: Porygon-Z banned, Pokemon League Recalling Dubious Disc in Exchange for Cash Reward
The rest of the articles said something similar. I tentatively looked at my own Porygon-Z, which was passively floating in front of us. Then I looked back at the photos of decimated city blocks that accompanied the articles I had looked at and facepalmed.
So my dumbass just created a potentially murderous AI that I can’t do much about. How could I have known about this? Well, this can’t be as bad as it sounds right? Yeah…
Seeing my somewhat grim expression, Winnie poked my face with his paw, “what does it say az?”
I sighed, “it says some bad stuff about Porygon-Z as a species. Though this one seems completely fine.”
Said Porygon-Z was quite docile, just peacefully floating in front of us without a care in the world. I looked around to make sure no one else was watching.
“Okay, uh Rotom, Create a new note in my personal Pokedex. Porygon-Z, the virtual Pokemon. Porygon-Z had a program installed to allow it to move between dimensions, but the program also caused instability in Porygon-Z’s behavior.”
“Bzzt!” Rotom saluted.
“Porygon-Z is a mouthful. Ummmm, okay, first command Porygon-Z, you’re nickname will be Glados.”
“POooooorrygOn weeeeeeoooooooweeeee.” Glados glitched in acknowledgement and spun its torso and arms while its head stayed super still. Kind of like when you move a chicken’s body and it’s head doesn’t move with the body.
Winnie tilted his head, “i can’t understand what Glados says.”
“Huh, that’s weird.” I rubbed my chin as Glados and I had a staring contest, “Were you able to understand it before?”
“yeah, but now its just not making any sense.” Winnie replied.
“Cool. Umm, Glados, you can use the phone to communicate then. Rotom will still be in charge of managing the phone, but you can rest in the, uh, cyberspace stuff in it.” I said, continuing the staring contest, my eyes were burning a bit.
“And, uh, try to learn the data from the Pokedex too, it’ll be helpful.”
Hopefully that would do some stuff to build the foundations for its ability, Download, cause I had no idea how to train basically any of its abilities.
Without another beep, Glados turned into a bunch of ones and zeroes and disappeared into the screen of the Rotom phone.
Rotom buzzed in displeasure. Glados wasn’t crowding it for space ot anything like that cause it had turned itself into data, but Rotom still wasn’t pleased about having a new roommate.
“Calm down Rotom, Glados will only be there for a while to get the Pokedex data. Once she’s done she’ll move to this,” I held up the Xtransceiver and attached it to my left wrist.
Rotom gave me another disgruntled buzz but accepted my reasoning while I contemplated how fucked I’d be when, not if, anyone found out about me having a Porygon-Z. Glados didn’t seem very murderous at the moment though, the virtual Pokemon was a blank slate, so I’d just have to put in some extra effort to make it non-murderous.
I didn’t mention the new addition to my team after rejoining Justine and Kenta. Instead, I put the problem I had created for myself at the back of my head to deal with later.
The TM shop was our next destination. It was one of the places I were was actually looking to buy stuff. I had a bunch of TRs but they were the single use kind, and I wanted a TM of Protect cause I wanted all my current and future Pokemon to learn it. I also needed a TR for Substitute for Winnie cause I didn’t have one for that move.
Kenta got a few TRs for Dragonite while Justine got a few TMs for her team.
----------------------------------------
We stopped to watch a musician and a chorus of ten Chatot perform a few songs, as well as a violinist and a Kricketune’s duet.
“Guys! It’s Laverre Fashion! They’re stuff is super cute, we need to take a look!” Justine said as she ran over to view the display window of a fancy looking store with pink and purple decor.
Kenta sighed and I raised an eyebrow. Fancy clothing really isn’t my thing…Wait, Laverre like that Fairy type gym in Kalos?
“Does that store have anything to do with Laverre City in Kalos?”
Justine nodded, “Correct! The gym there creates outfits for trainers. It’s the same brand that designs Diantha’s outfits! They recently did some stuff for Wallace too~” Justine squealed as she mentioned Wallace and quickly pulled up a few pictures of Wallace modeling in some…slightly questionably cut outfits.
I just nodded, “Cool.”
Winnie tilted his head as he examined the pictures, “az, why does that human’s pants look like they’re going to fall off?”
“It’s fashion Winnie. Different people have different tastes.”
“it doesn’t look very practical to me.”
“When was fashion ever completely practical?”
“It totally can be practical! Tons of trainers have signature outfits to attract attention from sponsors and for job opportunities! It lets others know what type of trainer they are and helps them stand out from the crowd!” Justine exclaimed.
“I mean, take a look at Steven Stone! Who can’t imagine him in his elegant suit? Or Cynthia in her black coat?”
Kenta reached over and closed Justine’s phone just she she switched to som paparazzi photos of Steven, “Yeah, yeah, we get that you like fashion, but we’re here to shop, you can talk about that another time.”
Justine rolled her eyes as she recognized her own words behind used against her. I coughed, trying to cover up a laugh while Kenta kept a straight face.
All the members of the security team had some sort of outfit that went with them. Leo usually wore a crisp black leather jackets and shades, Ben had his all bright red getup, Abigail had a recognizable snowy mountain explorer getup, and even Kenta wore a dragon themed outfit.
On one hand, Justine had a point, maybe I should think about a cool outfit.
On the other hand, I was hungry and didn’t want to visit another clothing store. Winnie had the same thing on his mind, “aaazzz. i’m hungry.”
I checked the time, it was nearing 2 PM, and we hadn’t really eaten anything yet.
“Hey guys, you wanna go to lunch? Winnie and I are hungry.”
Justine and Kenta agreed, they were hungry too, and we decided to take Kenta’s restaurant suggestion, at a place called, ‘The Fight Club.” It was a pretty intriguing name
I trailed behind the two as Glados notified me that it was done downloading the Pokedex data.
“Good job Glados, switch over to the Xtransceiver and analyze the data for best ways to defeat each Pokemon.”